307: Big While Loop
Hosts Elecia White and Christopher White discuss the decision to use a real-time operating system (RTOS) on microcontrollers versus bare-metal programming. They define an RTOS as an application framework that simplifies task management, memory handling, and inter-thread communication, contrasting it with the 'big while loop' approach. The hosts outline specific scenarios where an RTOS is beneficial, such as handling TCP/IP, Bluetooth, complex displays, and file systems, while also addressing common concurrency issues like priority inversion, race conditions, and non-reentrancy.